Making connections in the printed circuit board industry with tips, commentary and news written just for you.

The Superconductive Circuit Board

If you work with printed circuit boards and PCB manufacturing in your business, then you have probably already heard of immersion white tin, but may have questions about how it actually works and whether it's a process that you should care about.

Given that we are leaders in immersion white tin PCB fabrication here at Omni, it goes without saying that we are heavily in favor of its use. To understand why, you first have to understand the reason behind our preference for white tin in the first place. Traditionally, circuit boards have been finished with a coating of material, usually containing lead, as part of the soldering process. That's great for the functionality of printed circuit boards, but less friendly for the environment since these metals (and the byproducts created) can be extremely toxic.

If there's one thing we learned from our years in printed circuit board manufacturing, it's that there is an enormous difference between saying you can handle quick turn on your website and actually delivering high-quality PCB boards at your customer’s facility. In fact, we suspect that most manufacturers would tell you the same thing: There's just nothing like dependable service when it truly matters.

Ask someone if they are interested in environmentally sustainable processes and you’ll see a lot of chest thumping and hear a lot of rhetoric about how we have to save the world.

Then ask them what PCB finish best approaches sustainable ideals and you will hear how ENIG is pretty close and HASL isn’t all that bad. In truth, one of the best approaches available today is Immersion White Tin. As a shop that offers and truthfully prefers Immersion White Tin for its lead-free and environmental pluses, Omni Circuit Boards is pleased to provide this finish for its niche market of Prototyping and Short Run Printed Circuit Boards.